A Brown County third grader is recovering after a fox attacked him while playing in his grandparents’ yard on Sunday.
The eight-year-old received shots of the rabies vaccine Tuesday afternoon.
If the fox tests positive for rabies, the boy will need to undergo several more rounds of the vaccine.
“Sends chills down your spine, because you know something’s wrong,” said Allison Horton, the boy’s grandmother.
Horton’s grandson has played in her front yard on Brown County Road 429 for years.
“He’d been outside just a couple of minutes. I heard this blood-curdling scream, so we knew something was wrong,” she said.
When Allison’s husband Andrew heard the screams, he rushed outside to find a small fox latched onto his grandson’s leg.
“I grabbed my grandson, started shaking him, and was able to knock the fox off,” Andrew said.
Instead of running away, he said the animal came back for more, charging him and his grandson.
“The fox was coming up the porch towards me,” he said.
Brown County Game Warden Matthew Marek said the animal’s aggressive nature was likely a sign of rabies, but won’t know for sure until the test results come back.
“If it’s lost it’s fear of humans, it’s a pretty good sign it has rabies,” he said.
A local veterinarian sent the fox to Austin for testing.
The family paid the bill as Brown County doesn’t cover the expenses to dispose of or test wild animals.
The results are expected back later this week.
Original Report: A grade-school boy was attacked by a small fox Sunday while he was playing in his grandparents’ front yard on County Road 429, the Brown County Sheriff’s office reports.
The report states that the boy’s grandfather heard him yell after a small fox bit the boy’s sock and appeared to be stuck somehow on his leg. The grandfather told the deputy that he “grabbed the boy and slung him around to throw the fox off of him,” the report states.
The boy’s grandfather said that he shot at the fox multiple times before he finally hit it, and that the fox never attempted to run off.
The report states that the boy didn’t seem to suffer a full bite, but did have some scratches that they wanted checked out in the emergency room.
The deputy advised the family to check with a veterinarian to have the fox tested for rabies.